Diane furious at intolerant MP who refuses to see constituents in Burkas
Diane has severely criticised Philip Hollobone MP for an interview in The Independent where he promises to turn away constituents wearing a face-veil from surgery meetings. Conservative MP Hollobone is also responsible for tabling the Face Coverings (Regulation) Bill, a private members bill that would make the wearing of garments such as the burka illegal in the UK.
During the interview, the Kettering MP said: “I would ask her to remove the veil. If she said ‘no’, I would take the view she could see my face, I could not see hers, I am not able to satisfy myself she is who she says she is.”
“I would invite her to communicate with me in a different form, probably in the form of a letter.”
Hollobone’s comments come following events in France where legislation to ban the burka there is now nearing completion. Speaking in The Independent, he claimed that he would refuse to see constituents wearing a face covering, taking what he regarded as a ‘common sense view’ on the debate.
“I take what I regard as a common sense view,” he said. “If you want to engage in normal, daily, interactive dialogue with your fellow human beings, you can only really do this properly by seeing each other’s face: 75 per cent of the usual communication is done with personal experience. God gave us faces to be expressive.”
Having previously spoken out against politicians calling for a ban on the burka, Diane has expressed her anger at the comments expressed by Hollobone.
“Having seen the interview in The Independent, I was dismayed to see the same tired, illogical and unfounded arguments used by islamophobes over the years reflected in the comments of Hollobone. For instance he says 75% of communication is non-verbal which is just plain wrong. The number is closer to 55% and includes eye-contact.
“He maintains that the burka should be banned as a matter of identification, but there are currently very simple identification procedures to cater for those who choose to wear a burka. His proposal to see the end of the burka is really just an attempt to enforce his personal beliefs on the general public and incite intolerance. I won’t even begin with his excuse for using God-given facial expressions as a justification for suppressing a facet of Islamic culture”.
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